Nam Le wins £60k Dylan Thomas prize

A 29-year-old Vietnamese writer has won this year's Dylan Thomas prize for The Boat, a debut collection of short stories. Nam Le (pictured) was presented with the £60,000 prize at a ceremony in Swansea last night, where he won praise from the Welsh-born Hollywood actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, who said he was a "worthy winner".

Le, who grew up in Australia, beat five other writers to win the prize, which was set up two years ago and is open to any work, from any genre, which has been published in English and written by someone under 30. It is now one of the biggest literary awards, at least in financial terms, offering a bigger cheque than the £50,000 Man Booker.

The stories in The Boat have an international flavour. In one, Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice, a young writer is urged by his friends to use his father's experiences in Vietnam and it becomes an exploration of homeland, and the ties between father and son. Others are set in Columbia, Tehran and Australia.

Next year Le, who currently lives in New York, will take up a residency at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, where he plans to work on his next book.